Monday, March 28, 2011

I had a woman from Santa Cruz come to my studio yesterday to have a private workshop session. Suzanne was delightful and we discovered we have mutual friends. I am so disappointed that I did not take any photos of her work. She had the most beautiful color scheme, dreamy seafoam, golden wheat and brown.

After she left I got busy shibori dyeing silk ribbons at the request of super talented friend, Suza, to add to her spring linen jacket collection. It's hard to color match and it may be that none of the ribbons will work for her color scheme. A color name can be a wide variety of actual colors. Think if someone asked you to color something plum what would that mean to you? I bet everyone would have a range of purples but maybe not the "plum" the person who asked envisioned.

I've not said much about my back issues but it's been difficult for me. We trust doctors so much but often they can't help us and only offer opinions that we take for gospel. Sigh. I'll not go into the saga but next Friday I will get another round of epidural steroid shots and really, really, really, hope they give me some relief. I mean I'm leaving April 6th to go to New Zealand and I so want to not back pain!!

The sun is finally shining today so I'm going to go outside and enjoy it since it's predicted we'll only see a couple days of it and then more rain and gloom. I really am starting to feel like Eeyore.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

I sent my friend Doris Arndt some silk yarns and asked her if she'd crochet some small flowers for me. I intend to put these in kits for the class I'm teaching at Create, "wayward wrist wraps". I can't imagine the students taking the class won't love them as I do. Of course I will use some of them myself to embellish the nuno felted wraps with.

If you click on the highlighted "Create" above it will take you to the website. Check out the classes being offered and if there is anyway you can attend the retreat you really should!

I'm also planning to travel to Missouri in June. My friend Sharon Kilfoyle and I are putting together a weekend retreat at her studio in Ashland June 11 & 12. We'll be doing shibori dyeing silk and silk ribbons, creating a wayward threads ribbon scarf and nuno felted projects. I will be posting more about that a little later so please stop back by my blog to check for more info.

On another note I have been affected by the tragedy that has hit Japan. There are many charitable organizations to contribute to that are setting up plans to help Japan. We have contributed to Save the Children but I urge you to contribute to the charity of your choice any funds you can.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I finished the piece I have been working diligently on for the Altered Couture Wedding Challenge. The due date is March 15th and I was able to finish the dress this morning and mail it off USPS Priority mail so it should arrive in time. Whew!! Now to wait patiently for them to go through all the entries and decide who gets accepted. I think it could take months and sometimes that's hard for people (like me) who get impatient and anxiously excited to know. I'm just like a little kid who wants to know what's in the wrapped box?! It's that same feeling.

I'm not going to reveal any of the dress since there is a possibility of getting published and I want it to be a surprise in the magazine. I mean that is the point. I guess it seems like I am contradicting myself since I both love surprises and at the same time can hardly stand to be patient to find things out.

I also finished this garment I've been working on for a while. Let me explain. I often start a piece by hanging it up and looking at it from time to time. I pin different fabrics, or vintage pieces, trims, and laces to decided where I want to go with it. I work as I go so sometimes it takes a while to get a piece completed. I work on more than one garment at a time so I've always got projects going in different stages.

The back of this garment has a velvet piece that was designed by Marian Clayden. I attended a tea in her honor in 2008 where remnants of her designed velvet pieces were for sale and I purchased a few of these along with some of her shibori fabrics. Marian is wheelchair bound by her illness now and I have not heard a word about her since I attended that tea which was fabulous! A whole exhibit of her lifetime works of art in the garment and fabric design world.

I always thought of her velvets as being "burn out or devore" but in fact she created the designs and the velvet was woven with them and not the reverse. With devore (in a nutshell), the velvet is woven and then the design is "burned" into the fabric by screening or painting a chemical onto the velvet fibers in the design you want and the chemical causes the rayon velvet to pull away from the silk backing.

This is the finished piece:

But it started this way:

My goal now is to clean up my space a bit, begin gathering materials to make kits for Create in May, and do what I can to create more garments, dyed ribbons, flower pins, etc. before I leave on April 6 for a trip to New Zealand! My hubby and I will be gone until April 28th visiting friends there and exploring a bit on our own. I've never been and am looking forward to this trip!

I'll be participating in a May Day show On April 30th and May 1st and sincerely hope I will not be jet lagged and spaced out for the show. I'll be posting more about that show in a week or two.

Gathering Grace

Gathering Grace

Gathering Grace

Gathering Grace

I am primarily a fiber artist: a weaver, a dyer of cloth, creator of altered cloth books and art, and a designer of garments and accessories. I have a studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California where I immerse myself in projects and gaze out over the hills to the Monterey Bay. I write a little poetry from time to time and songs too. I have a great family, two sons, a husband, and joint custody of 2 cats, Moo and Ducky.